John Hughes

I've been working in ELT since 1992. Like many people I ventured into the classroom partly through design and partly by chance. I was travelling in Poland, completing my MA thesis on performance of the final plays of Shakespeare in Central Europe (post-Cold War), when an American university in southern Poland asked me to lecture for a few weeks on drama and public speaking. Before I knew it I was also teaching business English and loving it. The scripting and performance of business situations such as presentations and negotiations all seemed to make sense to me. So what was planned as a few months in Poland turned into four years.

Managing and Teacher Training

Since then I've also taught in Austria, Italy and the UK. I've been a director of studies for business English and ESP departments and I also ran a teacher training department in Cheltenham, UK. Now I design and run online teacher training courses for Cactus TEFL.

Writing

I've written a number of books including Telephone English for Macmillan. Other books include books for business English, FCE preparation and resources for teachers. I've had a column in the Guardian Weekly's Learning Teaching supplement and a series of articles in English Teaching Professional.

Conferences

You'll often find me at an IATEFL conference and I've been a committee member of the Teacher Trainers and Educators Special Interest group.

For more information about my work, visit my blog: www.trainingelteachers.net where you can also read about various issues relating to ELT.